An online social networking service provides a platform whereby a member of the social networking service may connect with other members of the social networking service. The social networking service provides a number of services to the member, such as job seeking services, job hosting services, member profile services, job history services, resume building services, and other such services. From interacting with these services, the social networking service stores information provided by members in a corresponding member profile.
Where the social networking service advertises one or more job openings, a job opening may be associated with one or more skills that the associated employer would like the potential employee to have. There may be a number of candidates for the job opening, but none of the potential candidates may have the skills that the employer would like the employee to have for the job opening. In addition, some candidates for the job opening may desire to learn the skills associated with the job opening, but may be unsure as to how they would go about acquiring such skills. Other candidates may also be skilled within their own industry, but would like to transition to another industry or another career via the job associated with the job opening. As there may be little or no direct correlation between the skills currently possessed by these candidates and the skills associated with the job opening, it may be difficult for these candidates to determine which intermediary skills they should acquire or learn to transition from their current skill set to the skills associated with the job opening. Thus, the job opening may remain vacant or unfulfilled as there may be no suitable candidates to fill it. Accordingly, there is a benefit to both employers and job candidates in identifying transitional or intermediary skills.